Book-It’s s 25th anniversary has been full of celebration, most recently with our Silver Jubilee Gala on March 7. As board president, it’s been amazing to be a part of the ride. We chose to switch it up this year and forego Guilty Pleasures, our annual party and auction, in order to showcase amazing works from our past (Kurt Vonnegut’s “The Long Walk Home” and Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.”) and honor Co-Artistic Directors Jane Jones and Myra Platt.

While I was a little nervous about mixing it up, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the result and have received a lot of great feedback from guests. We had over 200 people join us at Showbox at the Market for an amazing night. From the first moment guests started to arrive to the last second of dancing to The Dusty 45s, the evening was a huge success.

We exceeded our goal of raising $120,000 and had a great time doing it. I loved seeing so many familiar faces and meeting new friends. The energy during the silent and live auctions was great, with exuberant bidding and competition among attendees. The tribute to Jane and Myra was heartfelt and offered a glimpse of what it was like during the early years of the company. Finally, The Dusty 45s got everyone up and moving with their infectious energy and great sound. Here’s to 25 more years!

]]>http://book-it.org/2015/03/a-book-it-anniversary-to-remember/feed/0Introducing the cast and crew of Little Beehttp://book-it.org/2015/03/introducing-the-cast-and-crew-of-little-bee-2/ http://book-it.org/2015/03/introducing-the-cast-and-crew-of-little-bee-2/#commentsTue, 10 Mar 2015 00:35:28 +0000http://book-it.org/?p=6183Just as one show closes, another one is already in the making! Time waits for no man (or woman), here at Book-It. Myra Platt’s adaptation of Chris Cleave’s novel Little Bee is next on the docket for our Silver Jubilee season and we couldn’t be more excited for the talented group of actors and designers who get to show off their work.

Please give a warm welcome to these fine folks who will be on stage:

Sydney Andrews* (Sarah O’Rourke)

Elena Flory-Barnes (Yevette/Hunter/Ensemble)

Jonah Kowal (Charlie)

Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako (Little Bee)

Meiko Parton (Hunter/Undertaker/Ensemble)

Michael Patten* (Lawrence/Detention Center Officer/Ensemble)

Eric Riedmann* (Andrew O’Rourke/Cab Driver/Ensemble)

Jason Sanford (Guard/Policeman/Ensemble)

Zenaida Smith (No Name/Clarissa/Ensemble)

Kaila Towers (Nkiruka/Receptionist/Ensemble)

And where would we be without the creative minds of our fabulous crew?

Myra Platt, Director/Adapter

William E. Cruttenden III*, Stage Manager

Xandria Nirvana Barber, Assistant Stage Manager

Will Abrahamse, Scenic Designer

Andrew D. Smith, Lighting Designer

Christine Meyers, Costume Designer

Evan Mosher, Sound Designer

Anthea Carns, Dramaturg

*Denotes member Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

You probably don’t know much about Charles Portis, but you should.Portis has been called “everybody’s favorite least-known novelist” because over the years he’s flown so inexplicably under the radar. Yes, he wrote the best-selling western True Grit, but there’s a lot more than that to love about this humble author from Arkansas.

In the ’60s, Portis took an active role in the civil rights movement, working as a journalist in Alabama in 1963. One night he even reported from a KKK rally which erupted into burning, exploding riots. Portis had guts to be there in the first place, considering that violence against ‘yankee’ reporters was not uncommon at the time.

The American automobile factors big-time in Portis’ writing. He pays a lot of attention to engines, parts, and the inner-workings of cars, and so it’s no coincidence that his most unlikeable characters are those who don’t properly maintain their vehicles.

]]>http://book-it.org/2015/01/dont-know-much-about-charles-portis/feed/0The Secret-Handshake Society of Portis Lovershttp://book-it.org/2015/01/the-secret-handshake-society-of-portis-lovers/ http://book-it.org/2015/01/the-secret-handshake-society-of-portis-lovers/#commentsTue, 06 Jan 2015 20:12:27 +0000http://book-it.org/?p=5991A letter from Adapter Judd Parkin to the cast and designers of The Dog of the South.

Adapter Judd Parkin

I suppose in a roundabout way I owe my love of Charles Portis to John Wayne. Like a lot of people my age, I saw the Wayne version of True Gritwhen it was first released. Being a rabid movie enthusiast, I bought the tie-in book edition, but being a teenager with a short attention span I never bothered to actually read it.

My reading of True Grit took place many years later when I was visiting my mother and was hunting through her bookshelves for something to read. I noticed my old yellowing paperback and pulled it down and read the first paragraph, more out of curiosity than anything. It was one of those experiences that one gets all too rarely as a reader, where the sky cracks open and you enter another dimension.

I was riveted.

Why hadn’t anyone ever told me what a great book this was and what a great writer this Portis fellow was? The book of True Grit was so much better than the Wayne movie as to defy comparison. I read the book from cover-to-cover in one sitting, and knew that I had stumbled upon a truly great American writer, an artist who deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as Twain, Lardner, and Salinger. I became a fanatic about the book on par with one of Portis’ own obsessive heroes. I hardly talked about anything else but True Grit for weeks, trying to convince all my friends that they should stop doing whatever they were doing and immediately read True Grit. I won no converts, only disbelieving and pitying looks from my friends who thought I didn’t have both oars in the water. Read a book that was the basis for a John Wayne movie? Judd had clearly gone round the bend.

From the opening sentence of Dog I knew I had lost my heart to dear, hapless Ray Midge and that I would gladly follow him through his hilarious, heart-breaking journey many times in my reading life.

Undeterred, I was determined to read everything Portis had ever written. This took some doing in the 1990s because all of Portis’ novels, apart from True Grit, had gone out of print. I scoured used bookstores and eventually found a battered copy of The Dog of the South. Though my expectations were high, I was completely unprepared for a book that was even greater and crazier than True Grit. From the opening sentence of Dog I knew I had lost my heart to dear, hapless Ray Midge and that I would gladly follow him through his hilarious, heart-breaking journey many times in my reading life. I once again became like one of Portis’ obsessive characters and told all my friends to forget about reading True Grit and that they should instead read The Dog of the South, which was Portis’ real masterpiece. Once again I won no converts, only shrugs and pitying looks from my friends. I didn’t care. As surely as Dr. Symes believes John Selmer Dix has all the answers to the universe, I was convinced that Charles Portis was one of our greatest writers, perhaps the greatest American comic writer of the 20th Century.

In time, I found copies of Portis’ other books, which I read and savored. When I read the last of his five published novels, Gringos, I felt as sad as if someone had died—there were no more Charles Portis books to read, and apparently no new ones on the way. It was disheartening. To console myself, I re-read The Dog of the South countless times, somehow enjoying it even more with each reading. But it was a lonely preoccupation because I had no one to share the books with.

“Is this Portis guy the writer you were babbling about a while ago?”

Then a small miracle happened: Overlook Press re-issued all of Portis’ novels. Suddenly, many of my friends who had previously declined to read True Grit or Dog were asking me, “Is this Portis guy the writer you were babbling about a while ago?” People I knew were buying Portis’ books and telling me about them. I couldn’t believe it! But I rejoiced because I finally had people to share the books with.

Around the time that the Coen Brothers version of True Grit was released, my kids and all their friends became interested in dear Mr. Portis. I became known as the crazy dad who had read all of Portis’ books and who knew everything there was to know about Portis. I felt like John Selmer Dix! People sought my advice as to which Portis novel to read first and I always told them that there was no better starting point than The Dog of the South. My copies of all of Portis’ novels started disappearing from my bookshelves as my kids and their friends borrowed and didn’t return them. I have lost track of how many replacement copies of the novels I have bought, especially of Dog—but it was money well spent to have inducted many people into the secret-handshake society of Portis lovers.

And now, whether you like it or not, dear artists, you are members of this secret society, and God bless you for it.

Judd Parkin has produced and written numerous telvision films, including the acclaimed CBS miniseries Jesus, the Christopher Award-winning Nicholas’ Gift, and the Liftetime Television perennial Christmas favorite Comfort and Joy. He is the author of the 2010 novel The Carpenter’s Miracle, which he adapted and produced as a GMC world premiere movie. In 2013, he adapted Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Uncensored for Book-It.

]]>http://book-it.org/2015/01/the-secret-handshake-society-of-portis-lovers/feed/0Jen Taylor Loves Jane Austen More Than Youhttp://book-it.org/2014/12/jen-taylor-loves-jane-austen-more-than-you/ http://book-it.org/2014/12/jen-taylor-loves-jane-austen-more-than-you/#commentsFri, 12 Dec 2014 02:06:01 +0000http://book-it.org/?p=5891Publications & Media Manager Shannon Loys sat down with our very own Jen Taylor, currently playing Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Jen has adapted two novels for Book-It and was most recently on our stage in Truth Like the Sun.

Richard Nguyen Sloniker and Jen Taylor during rehearsal.

Shannon Loys: So is it fair to say you love Jane Austen?

Jen Taylor: Yeah, it’s super fair to say that.

S: How far back does this love go?

J: I probably didn’t fall in love with Jane Austen until college, but I read Pride and Prejudice when I was 8.

S: Whoa.

J: And I underlined all of the words that I didn’t understand and looked them up which took a very long time. (Laughs) I remember the word that struck me the most was “countenance.” Because it’s not a word that we use, and the concept of someone’s countenance was very confusing to me. I was like, “Well is it what they look like? No, is it their mood? Is it, you know, a cross between those things?” Yeah. I was very fascinated by that. Interestingly enough, I think I say “countenance” 45 times in this play.

S:8-year-old Jen underlining words in Pride and Prejudice. I mean, you were an adapter in the making.

J:(Laughs) My mother would love to hear that. I think it was mainly because my mother loved the book. People: read books to your children. My mother was, and is to this day, an avid reader. She was interested in it so I thought, “This must be good.” And she watched the BBC production so I watched it, too. I wondered why Elizabeth didn’t end up with Wickham, frankly. Which is probably why I married my first Wickham. [Colin Byrne played Wickham in our 2004 production of Pride and Prejudice.]

S: I hear there’s a story about the necklace you’re wearing on the poster and in the show.

J: Yeah. The necklace that I’m wearing is a replica of the one that Jane Austen wore, that my parents gave me for a birthday, I think.

S: Wow.

J: So nerdy. Right? The nerdiest thing you’ve ever heard.

S: I would imagine that most people in the audience—unless they know you and your history with Book-It—would assume that you’re just an actress who happens to be in an Austen play. They wouldn’t know that you, in your real life, have this special relationship with the material.

J: Yeah, so [Co-Artistic Director] Jane Jones loves this story: ten years ago I lost everything I owned in a burglary, where I was moving and they stole my moving van. I went to the mall because I needed to buy the staples and I was so overwhelmed by all of the consumerism, and how much stuff–I didn’t have anything–and I just thought, “What am I going to do?” I got a little freaked out and I went to the book store and bought Pride and Prejudice. I went back to where I was staying and just sat there and read it. I needed comfort.

J: Yes, of course! Every second is new. You know, there are moments when you’re rehearsing that, sadly, you gloss over, but then there are all sorts of times when you are onstage and you’re having a conversation with somebody and you’re thinking “Oh god, this is where I am in this moment. I just finally figured this out.” And especially with a completely different cast who’s interpreting things in a different way and a different director. Absolutely, yeah. It’s a new ballgame with a very familiar frame. (Thinks) I’m in a familiar stadium but I’m playing a different game.

S: Elizabeth must rank in the top 5 most-beloved literary heroines. What is it about her?

J: She’s smarter than hell. She’s flawed. She is so witty and clever and good with language that she says all of the things that you wish you could say when you’re encountered with these things, right?

She’s kind-hearted. So she’s trying to be good to people, even though she can be a stinker.

She says all the things you wish you could say. I leave here sometimes going, “God I wish I could just have her sitting in my brain for those moments.”

S: To have those words when you need them. I mean, anyone can think of the right words later.

S: It’s clear that you think so. It’s clear that you really love playing her.

J: It’s a blast.

S: What is your favorite Elizabeth “zinger” that you deliver on stage?

J: “From the very beginning, from the first moment of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of others were such as to form that groundwork of disapproval on which succeeding events have built a now immovable dislike. Indeed I had not known you a month before I felt you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry!”

S: You got married fairly recently, in the last year or so, to your “first Wickham?”

J: A year and a half ago.

S: Was a mutual love of Austen a prerequisite for dating?

J:(Laughs) You know it’s funny, Austen brought me my husband—Jane Austen and Jane Jones. I met Colin doing Pride and Prejudice. And we were just friends for a long time, and then three and a half years later we adapted Persuasion together.

S: You played Elizabeth before you tried adapting. How did you get started doing that?

J: I’ve always wanted to write a book but I don’t even know how to start that, and I didn’t feel like I had enough inspiration to write a play. So I was talking to Jane about, you know, telling different Austen stories and she said “Well, why don’t you just try doing one?” And I thought, “Oh! Oo. Yeah. Uh, ok! …Wow, I don’t even know how I would go about doing that.” And she said, “Well, get Colin to help you.” Because he’d adapted short stories before. And frankly, what I did was I downloaded the book onto my computer and then I went through and just started cutting. So most of the language is directly from the novel because I took it right off the page.

Something [Book-It Company Member] David Quicksall had said to me very early on was “Find the story within the story that you want to tell.”

S: Because there’s so much in a book.

J: Because there’s so much and you can’t do it all, so find the thing that you want to focus on and tell the story that you want to tell. And figuring out what your point of view is, is important too.

And I fumbled around for awhile, trying to figure it out.

S: Was it weird being on the other side of it, hearing actors speak your adaptation?

J: No, it’s fantastic. I love it. I mean, I love doing Book-It shows for that reason. I love to be a part of that process. Sometimes I get a little too excited about it, um, cause I like playing with words. It’s fun.

S: Are you the in-cast Austen expert for this show?

J: Oh god, I’m probably the bossy—the, the “Bausten.” Emma, who is our assistant stage manager, is also very well versed in Austen. So we together are sort of the nerds of the group. I don’t know if they would call me—what was it you said?

S: The Austen expert.

J: Yeah, I think they’d call me the nerd. Not the expert but the nerd.